• For the second consecutive year, Wrightsoft , Lexington, Mass., has won the AHR Expo Innovation Award —this time, for its Right-Radiant Plus software. The software is capable of producing an automatic loop drawing, coupled with calculations, in a single application and acts as a “live model,” simultaneously and instantly updating the drawing and calculations based on any changes made within the program.
• Osman Ahmed , a senior principal engineer for Siemens Building Technologies , Buffalo Grove, Ill., has been selected Inventor of the Year by parent company Siemens AG of Germany. Ahmed’s work involves research with micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), an area of microchip technology that uses both the electrical and mechanical properties of silicon chips.
• Honeywell has reached an agreement with the board of directors of Novar plc to purchase the company for $2.4 billion, including the assumption of approximately $580 million of outstanding debt. The Novar board has unanimously recommended the offer.
• The National Assoc. of Electrical Distributors announced a $250,000 commitment by Cooper Industries to the endowment fund for the NAED Education and Research Foundation . The principal amount of the endowment will remain untouched while the interest will be used to commission future projects and research studies.
• Northrop Grumman’s , Herndon, Va., smart video-surveillance system garnered top scores as part of an evaluation hosed by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the U.S. Air Force National Assessment Group . The evaluation tested leading-edge security technologies to meet the tougher anti-terrorist threat scenarios against many government agencies and facilities worldwide.
